Wednesday, March 7, 2012

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: Greece is sure, it says, that they will get agreement from a sufficient number of bondholders (the magic number varies from 66% to 75%) to force extraordinary losses on the rest through retroactive “collective action clauses”. Check back on Thursday afternoon to see if the Greeks were a tad overconfident.

Run Away, Run Away: Protesters have run Obama and the G-8 out of Chicago without ever waving a placard. The gathering will be held in the seclusion of Camp David.

Pregnancy Prevention and the Taxpayer Let's clear up one thing in the contraceptive mandate: it doesn't cost you-the-taxpayer anything. It costs the consumers of that insurance policy – and their employer - a bit more in premiums. And in the long run, birth control, along with other pregnancy prevention programs, save taxpayer money. And it shouldn’t be insurmountably difficult to have contraceptive coverage as an option to a policy so individuals could individually choose not to accept.

See America on $2 a Day: The number of US households getting by on less than $2 in cash income per person doubled between 1996 and 2011, including 2.8 million children.

Nest Eggs: The ECB's overnight holdings of excess reserves is running about €800 billion – an all time record. This is a measure of how much money the banks are now holding that is “in excess of requirements” to fund productive loans in the economy. That, in turn, is an indication of how weak the European economy is.

Delayed Reaction: The media experts who claim that increasing oil prices are not impacting consumer behavior should ease off the “it's different this time” rhetoric for a while – history suggests there is a delay between the onset of higher oil prices and their impact on the consumer behavior. It is never “different this time.”

Mirror, Mirror:Ann Romney doesn't consider herself wealthy despite sharing an income of $20 million a year and assets of $250 million with Mitt.

The Oath: “I swear upon the Ghost of Ronnie that I have never had per-marital sex, extra-marital sex, or gay thoughts; I abhor pornography, oppose abortion and all means of birth control, will vote to repeal all taxes and terminate all social spending.” Or so I would have to say if I wanted to run as a GOPer in Laurens County, SC.

As Suspected: People simply are not smart enough to make democracy work. We don't know enough pick the best candidate or the best policy. At best the democratic election process produces mediocre leaders and questionable policies. That's what the research says; you'll have to decide for yourself.

Rush To Judgment: “What is it with all these young, single, white women? Over-educated doesn’t mean intelligent.” That's the latest broadside from the broadly sided Mr. Limbaugh.

Clicking Heels: Tornadoes are not acts of God, according to Pat Robertson. Rather, tornadoes are God's way of transferring heat from one place to another. People get killed because they get in the way of God's plan, or so the good Reverend says. And, he goes on, if we prayed sufficiently, we could “still the storms.”

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.